Publisher’s Description: We genuinely welcome new writers and are happy to consider any original short story that has not previously enjoyed print publication. Authors of accepted stories are paid generously and their work is published in a broadly distributed and highly regarded physical publication that persists in the real world and beyond the next post.

Every online submission in every category is read by us, and we don't stop reading for a contest just because we've found a good story. We also have three Standard (no-fee) reading months a year, so no one will be prevented from submitting their work for lack of funds. (The Slush Pile, Reader/Writer Comments)

If you read Glimmer Train, you know that we go to some lengths to honor and support our contributors and their writing. We hope you’ll let us read yours! Writing Guidelines. We welcome your submissions here.

In a recent Best American Short Stories, of the top “100 distinguished short stories,” six appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, second only to the New Yorker. Of those six, two were those authors’ first stories accepted for publication. Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers is offered in the months of February, May, August, and November, and is open to any writer whose fiction has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation greater than 5000.